What is Cool the Earth?

Cool the Earth is a grassroots, school-to-home program that provides climate change education through action. We engage kids and their families to take simple, measurable actions that collectively make a significant impact on global warming.

Can I run Cool the Earth at my school?

Cool the Earth can be run by any elementary school or middle school in the country. All that is required to run Cool the Earth is a parent or other adult volunteer to run the program, as well as permission from the school. The entire program is designed to be delivered to volunteers through the Cool the Earth website.

How does the program operate at a school?

Cool the Earth is a program run entirely by volunteers, headed up by a team leader at each elementary and middle school. Taking place outside of classroom time, during lunch and recess, the program begins with a kick-off assembly introducing the concepts of climate change to the student body. At this time kids receive Action Coupon books filled with low or no cost carbon saving initiatives to bring home to their families. Coupons are collected on campus by volunteers and tracked on a banner at the school as well as on the website. Schools can choose to incorporate some of the program enhancements such as Actions Spotlights which highlight a specific action with a hands-on activity. The program is very adaptable to each school’s needs and, as such, the program duration varies though 2-3 months is a common run time.

What does it take to be a team leader?

Anyone connected to a school, either a parent or teacher, can be a team leader. As long as you’re excited about bringing the program to your school, have good organizational skills and can pull together a team to assist you, you’re eligible. And you don’t need to be an expert on global warming.

How much time is required of the volunteers?

On average, it takes about 6-8 hours a month of total volunteer time to run the program. Launching the program and coordinating the assembly take a few additional hours but seeing the joy and eagerness on the student’s faces during the play makes it time well spent!

Our teachers are so busy! How much teacher involvement is there?

The CTE program is essentially 99% volunteer and student run and does not require teacher participation to be successful. However, during the program, teachers are given "Teacher Notes" summarizing the main points of the Action Spotlights, and they will be asked to talk to their class for a few minutes about these. So a little teacher involvement makes the program more successful!  If desired, teachers can incorporate climate change curriculum into the classroom. Suggested lessons can be found in the Resources section of the website.

How much does the program cost the school?

As a nonprofit organization, Cool the Earth actively pursues grants and donations to cover operating expenses.  At this time, we have grants that allow us to offer the program free of charge to interested schools. However, in order to keep our program sustainable during these challenging economic times, we ask that schools try to make a donation to Cool the Earth to help offset the material costs if possible.

How can we submit a donation to Cool the Earth?

Donations can easily be made to Cool the Earth in one of two ways. The website features a ‘Donate Now’ button that accepts credit card payments or a check can be mailed to Cool the Earth at PO Box 694 Kentfield, CA 94914-0694. Please be sure to include the name of the school on the check.

What does the school principal need to do?

Before the school is officially enrolled in the program, the principal is asked to approve the school’s participation in Cool The Earth. The principal will then be asked to support the program by: approving a date for the assembly, allowing a student group to work with CTE, allowing a brief presentation to teachers at a staff meeting, allowing various channels of communication to be used to promote the program to students and their families, and signing a letter to parents included with the Action Coupon booklets.

What is the science behind this program?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has published a series of reports in the last several years based on the work of hundreds of the world’s foremost scientists. The science is very complex, but their main points are simple and are the basis for our taking action: Global warming is unequivocal, it is very likely due to human activities that have created greenhouse gases (such as Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide). If we make changes in our production of these greenhouse gases soon, we may be able to reduce some of the negative impacts of climate change.

Does the program have a political agenda?

No. We are a grassroots effort trying to increase awareness in children and their families about their own daily carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. We want to show people that by making different choices, they can reduce their emissions and have a positive impact on the climate. Although individually this positive impact may seem small, our program shows that when we working together within our individual communities, we can make a significant impact!

We have non-english speaking families at our school. How can they be involved?

At this time our program materials are also available in Spanish and Mandarin.

Most of the schools running the program are in California. Can a school run the program outside of California?

Absolutely. With an entirely web-based delivery system, any school in the country can run Cool the Earth. Cool the Earth is currently in 26 states and four countries.

How much success has the program had so far?

In it’s first few years, Cool the Earth has reached 80,000 households, motivating families to take more than 244,000 specific measurable actions to reduce carbon by more than 170 million pounds, the equivalent of eliminating more than 14,200 cars off the road.

What does Cool the Earth do within it’s own organization to ensure it’s not adding to global emissions?

Cool the Earth makes every effort to run its operations with the environment in mind, including printing all materials on recycled paper, allowing employees to work from home, and creating a web-based delivery system, to minimize its carbon footprint.

We are a high school. Can we use this program?

The Cool The Earth program is designed for elementary schools and middles schools, not for high schools. Sorry! We encourage you to look into the Alliance for Climate Education at acespace.org. They offer a free, very motivating high school assembly about Global Warming. 

What are the long-term goals of the Cool the Earth program?

Cool the Earth hopes to offer its program at every elementary and middle school across the nation.